Adherence of Elderly Patients with Cardiovascular Disease to Statins and the Risk of Exacerbation of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: Evidence from an Italian Real-World Investigation.

In a real-world setting, we observed evidence that adherence to statin therapy markedly reduced the risk of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease exacerbations in elderly patients with co-existing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cardiovascular disease. Given the limited and controversial evidence from trials, more randomised controlled trials are urgently needed to better examine the potential benefits of statins as adjunct therapy in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.